Е-Публикации
Технически университет - София

Abstract: Present days’ advances in the development of environmentally friendly passenger airplanes led to the creation of novel concepts such as the distributed electric and hybrid propulsion. In this direction of developments a not so radical concept is proposed of a complimentary electric fan propulsion system that is fully retracted in the wing during cruise, produces lift and thrust during takeoff and produces mainly lift during approach and landing phases of the flight. This study is aimed at preliminary evaluation of the 2D aerodynamic characteristics of the airfoil of such a system. The study is conducted using CFD software ANSYS Fluent. As a reference a 2D CFD model of the standard midspan airfoil of B737-300 aircraft is used. The reference model is validated with XFOIL. Landing and takeoff configurations are modeled based on the validated clean airfoil. In order to find the most effective fan position, two variants are investigated. The first one uses a ducted fan mounted on the top rear section of the airfoil. The other model features an “immersed” fan, where the fore flap is replaced by the electric ducted fan. Both configurations show a tendency to increase the overall lift and not only decrease drag but also produce thrust for operational angles of attack. Despite the similar results, the “immersed” fan produces slightly lower drag, which gives it the upper hand when it comes to takeoff. However, to make a confident statement, additional 3D studies would be needed.

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